Saturday, December 21, 2013

When I visited my parents in Shenyang, this past September, the residents were gearing up for the Mid-Autumn Festival, when the consummation of rounded moon cakes and crabs was part of the tradition. It was a great fun to visit supermarkets during my visit:

Once inside the stores, customers were greeted with endless arrays of moon cakes in various price ranges:

There were crabs both in gift boxes and live ones in big barrels:

The fish counter offered many varieties of fish, either live in the tanks or frozen in neat formations, though the varieties still couldn't compare to those seen in the great fish market in Venice:

The meat counter was mightily impressive:

If one wanted to have read-to-eat meat products, the delicatessen counter offered huge selections:

In these packages, one could find chicken-feet, strange food some Chinese seemed quite fond of:

Personally, I would rather buy some tofu product below, though I had no idea if they were made from genetically modified soybeans or not:

I loved to look at those fancy looking traditional Chinese twists, but they were too rich to for my California-conditioned diet. Nearby, I saw some lovely Russian style bread and something flat bread and pizzas:

There were many pickles as well, such as different kinds of garlic on display below. You can compare them to the lovely looking raw garlic offered in the vegetable section:

The vegetables there were fresh but nothing too exceptional so I choose not to include many pictures other than these of mushrooms, fresh or dry, and some delicate ginseng:

The fruit stands were much more interesting, with many lovely fruits familiar or strange, particularly those from tropical countries, such as Thailand:

Dragon Fruits

The dry goods section was just as colorful and those in bulk containers were particularly lovely to behold:

There were some specialty food counters such as the Japanese one, which offered some exotic fares, including the extravagantly expensive Kobe Beef:

In those supermarkets, one could find many kinds of candies and snacks:

For drinks, these soft drinks, hard liquors, and coffee stood out:

Hard Liquor Shelf

Coffee Beans

Naturally, when one visited a supermarket in China, one would see something unusual, such as the canned Wheat Gluten imported from Taiwan:

I also saw a boy took a piss in public, though not on the floor - her mother did catch it with a plastic bag:

The advertisement on the shopping cart below advised customers: "What to do, if pregnant accidentally?"

The Supermarkets in Shenyang were often housed in huge shopping malls, equipped with restaurants or fast food joints, including this KFC offering "15 Yuan (about 2.47 US Dollars) Luxuriant Lunch":

Below is the picture of a typical shopping mall in Shenyang. There was a lackluster sale of Nike products in the central courtyard:

Outside the shopping centers, usually there were several bus lines to carry people to and fro: